The customs involved in the Autumn Festival of Fufluns were long though not particularly complex. They involved a series of games ranging from spear-throwing, boxing, races, great leaping contests, archery, wrestling and of course, swimming. Women were not forbidden from the races or the swimming contests, they were however kept away from participating in the others, not that this greatly worried Daegan. She had no interest in them to begin with, with only swimming as with all people in that region of Rothien being a great passion.

  After the physical contests, came the singing and poetry and story-telling demonstrations around the great-fire. The fire was to be lit, shortly after the last sheaf of wheat was cut to be cooked, with there being much dancing amongst the local people. All of whom celebrated the end of the harvest season with a splendid feast involving a great deal of mutton, corn, bread, oyster, other fishes and pork along with many fruits such as apples, bananas and grapes. Much wine and mead was drunk during all parts of the festivities, with the last of the barley wheat used to make the beer for the festival. All while the local carpenters set to work carving an effigy of Scota. Some years the effigy used was Scota in her form as the crone, with this image utilised in lean times, which was to be placed upon the altar in the local temple of the Golden Goddess. Whereas the maiden-effigy was utilised to represent her in good times, and placed in the temple in question. The festival also included a couple being selected to be wed, of course in more heathen times they were considered ‘temporarily’ married. A practice the Temple had frowned upon and had ordered that it either be dismissed entirely from the festival, or that it be modified into a proper marriage of sorts. Of course, many were the couple wed under such circumstances who came to regret the decision, with others such as Daegan’s own parents enjoying several years of bliss together. Often it was said that parents of the couple, offered a private bribe or offering for their son to be selected with so and so or such and such’s daughter. More often, the couple were selected based in how close the local druid had observed them to be, with four witnesses unrelated to them, called hither to inform him of how close the couple were.

  The more sceptical of the two, was Indulf’s younger brother, who was but two months younger than Cormac and her, was of a far more practical disposition, commenting as he did so. “Bah, a marriage is a marriage. What difference when it is held so long as it is not convened during some tragedy it makes no difference, now does it?”

  He spoke after hearing of the concerns the seamstress expressed, regarding what the auguries that were to be undertaken by Conn might presage for the coming year. The augurs were taken just before the feast; they involved a reading of oracle-stones decorated with the symbols of the twelve gods. Depending on how they fell, in what positions and which seemed the most dominant, much of the future could be told, or so it was said.

  Daegan was not alone, in having her doubts about the veracity of Conn’s ability to read the stones, as Trygve complained, “Ah yes, we must now read stones- which the good brother of the faith likely could not discern the difference from blades of grass, or his own fingers!”

  “Tush, some respect Trygve,” Kenna scolded sharply, just as the druid cast the stones upon his plate, which he bent over to read.

  The announcement was a positive one, with the druid proclaiming that the gods had promised another fertile year. This winter was to be one of moderate length, with the next harvest likely to be long, fruitful and to last as long as the last four had. In all it was the same prediction that had been uttered since the fall of the wicked king Donnchad, at the hands of good king Mael Bethad.

  Pleased by this prophecy, a great many of those gathered about them cheered, applauded and shouted great cries of ‘hurray, hurray for Conn!’ wherefore they began the feast. All were invited to the great feast regardless of how poor or rich they were. It was said that at one time, the laird of Thernkirk, the father of the present one was in the habit of joining the festivals. However, since his death twenty-five years ago, his heir Badrách had refused to participate in it. Not that it removed from the festivities or from the people’s enjoyment of their meals. Meals that consisted of meats, vegetables and fruits, with the meats consisting primarily of salmon, trout sunfish, bass and catfish, there was also mutton, pork, or beef. There was that famous recipe of the Caleds of course, the haggis made from derived from sheep’s liver, heart and lungs. There was also some lynx and deer meat, courtesy of Corin with many suspicious of how he had gotten them. The local laird had forbidden the hunt they preferred to turn a blind eye. Thinking it his own fault for not paying closer attention, to his forests, as to the fruits there were apples, peaches and pomegranates. The last of the trio of fruits having been taken from Salmon’s daughter’s garden, this left the vegetables, which consisted of carrots, tomatoes, onions, turnips, beans, peas and broccoli. This last one was not particularly popular among some of the children as you can imagine, though when mixed with trout there were those who enjoyed it. In all, there was food a-plenty for all, which was more in that time, than one could say for most villages on Bretwealda. With even the village of Glasvhail having suffered a lack of plenty in prior years, notably during the reign of Donnchad the Foul, yet since the rise of High-King Mael Bethad, the harvests had become incomparable.

  As they ate, Indulf picked up once more the discussion of marriage, to add his own voice to the arguments in support of Dae and Kenna. The women picking at their food with considerable care, with the bowl of water that sat upon the lower table that they sat before, to the left of the principal one reserved for Conn and his family, where the two men to the right of the seamstress being less careful. They were dressed in the same cloth they had worn to work that day, rather than the silk dress of the crimson-haired lass, or the fine brown wool one the dark-haired weaver wore.

  “Aye, though Inga claims the spring is the most auspicious time, whereas the autumn festival presages a poor union.” Indulf said offering a middle-ground between the two of them, evidently hoping to mollify his younger brother, whilst still placating Dae.

  “That is precisely the issue I have, we should not speak of such nonsense as ‘auspicious’,” Trygve complained loudly, far more so than any of them might well have liked.

  His older sibling glanced about them in distress, embarrassed by all the glowers the younger lad had drawn from a great contingent of women, elders and the odd young man present. Most of the men were preoccupied elsewhere, with either their meals, or a great number of them had yet to arrive, due to their participation in the spear-throwing contest, which as always was held nearer to the forest out of certainty that the sound of men throwing javelins, and exerting themselves might frighten away the fey. What few people, wondered was how tossing the weapons away from the forest might well terrify the local woodland fairies, with Daegan only pondering it due to Cormac having once pointed out this absurdity. The only time she had asked him if he was willing to participate alongside the other men, he had remarked that he would prefer to meet a fairy than to frighten it away, if only out of curiosity.

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  They were not to wait overlong before the swimming contest had begun; this caused her to bite her lower lip for she wished she could have participated. The seas was to her a friend and joy itself, where it was little more than a source of misery for Trygve, who grumbled a little for he could barely swim (this in spite of his work as a fisherman).

  This caused much teasing, by his brother as the two departed to join those wrestling nearer to the home of the Salmon. The most ancient man in the locality, who had presided for the past twenty eight years, over all such events he it was who decided the rules and victors. With the previous several years won by Freygil, father of the two men with whom, Daegan presently ate next to.

  This left the women to prepare the feast, to see to the races and to see who could leap the highest and the farthest, though in the case of Daegan who typically participated in such events yet was hardly dressed for such things, could only grumble. This she did with considerable vigour, until Kenna scolded her, advising she cease her continuous stream of mumbling and murmuring. “-‘Tis your own fault Dae, for it was you who forgot about those contests and came to my door, therefore you have none to blame save thyself.”

  Daegan would well have liked to snap back, in some grand fashion however, she preferred to preserve her own dignity by grumbling beneath her breath, for a moment longer before she fell into a sullen silence. All too aware that the truth of the matter, was that she had indeed proven herself to be at fault that day, the young lass waited out the contest in question, which ended near to the end of the feast. Wherefore the vast majority of those who had participated in the yearly contest joined those already seated together for the feast which lasted for another several hours.

  To the surprise of a great many, it had not been Simidh father of Inga, or Solamh the eldest brother of Indulf and Trygve who had won the competition as all had expected. But rather, it was Corin who had won the day. According to Solamh, who was a muscular twenty-three year old youth with the same curly blonde hair of Indulf and the large frame that all those of the house of Freygil possessed, this victory was in part Cormac’s fault.

  Hearing this Kenna cast an exasperated glance towards her son, who ignored it from where he sat to the right of the third of the sons of Freygil. The tale as it was told by Freygil (who sat to the left hand side of the seamstress), involved the blonde son of Murchadh gaining an early advantage. Only for him to be distracted, and to swim off in some other direction which served to distract several of the men in turn, thereupon Corin swam past them one and all, reaching the shore from the boat he had dived from ahead of the rest of those about him. This had earned for a great many of the men a small amount of resentment towards the lad in question. Others, such as Salmon grumbled about how the lad was far, in a way worse than his sire, who had won year after year at one time, every contest of swimming and spear-throwing.

  The comparisons between father and son hardly appeared to touch Cormac, whom Daegan noticed was more interested in discussing quietly with Wiglaf, who had arrived with him. As fond of the old man, as her friend was she nonetheless suddenly wished him gone at that moment. For it appeared to her that she was in contest with him for the youth’s attention.

  Where Wiglaf was old, bent and leant towards plumpness, Cormac was the opposite of the sorcerer. Healthy though not strong as Trygve was, he was however much akin to the Freygilsons blonde though his hair was brighter, and far more curled. Teal-eyed, he had the strong jaw that Murchadh had had, with a similar tall physique that he had not yet grown into. He stood a little lankily, with the lad in possession of a mole just below to the left of his left eye, along the corner of his jaw. It was not in appearance that Cormac stood out from all those about him, but in spirit. Absent-minded, eternally distracted, he was in possession of the finest memory Daegan had ever observed in all her life, a virtue she earnestly admired.

  That was the nature of their relationship. He was as the sea to her mind; at first glance shallow yet at his core in possession of greater depth than any other living man.

  This caused frustrated tears to spring to her eyes. A sensation that she despised with all her heart and soul, due to how unused she was to feeling such weakness. Her heart had sunk to far below her feet whereupon the lady Ainsley, Conn’s wife declared that it was time now, for song, dance and poetry.

  A great cheer swept through the crowd, with the Salmon crying out, “Here, here! Thank the fertile-god that we shall not have to hear, Conn’s endless speeches!”

  Conn’s words though, were delivered in the most pompous manner the man could summon much to the bemused exasperation of his listeners: “It is with considerable joy that I stand here before you to officiate over yet another Samhain festival. This festival of plenty that has offered us so very, very much since the accession of our right and proper High-King Mael Bethad,” There were a few ‘here, heres’ and a kick from the man’s wife ere he added hurriedly. “And his good Queen Gruach! Though never let us forget that the plenty we enjoy hereon earth, is but a temporary thing in comparison to the greater glory of the gods and Father Temple.” It was at this time that most began to become drowsy. Conn may have had a gift for choosing his words well at times, and may have been an infinitely loyal headman of the village, but he had the sort of sonorous voice that served only to put folks to sleep. As it was, even Salmon’s dogs Siomon and Artuir were beginning to yawn. It was at this time the speech continued, “We should also remember that greater treasure than food and material wealth, um which can be found in people. I have found it in my dear wife Ainsley,” Here he paused to collect his accolades, which were few. “Just as my noble father Dand the Auburn found it with my mother, Deirdre, and his father, my esteemed grandfather Dubghall discovered this truth in Donella, my dearest grandmother.” He continued on for some time about his ancestors, with a great snore heard from the crowd, and some unknown person (Salmon) shouted at him to get on with it. Irritated and unable to locate the person, he went on, “In turn though, my daughters and their men-folk have discovered this truth; that greatest joy comes from those around you, in sharing it with he or she you love most. I have been pleased to note the same bond growing between my daughter Helga, the apple of my eye and easily the fairest of the newly blossomed flowers these past few years.” Here he gave a defiant look to his people, many of whom either went on snoring, or snorted (as in the case of Corin and Salmon, both proud fathers and grandfather respectively). “She has discovered this in the eyes I am told of a golden-youth, one who has always been er- humble in his desires, and respectable in his ancestry, and of the goodliest of intentions. Or so I am told, with this youth I imagine finding the same love and hope for good, and joy in her dark eyes.” This caught the attention of some, as this sounded so utterly vague as to get a great many lads hopeful, and their parents curious. Helga was indeed the most eligible maiden in Glasvhail, by virtue of her dowry being the headmanship and temple of Fufluns. “I am told that this youth, Cormac MacMurchadh MacWaltigon, is of the noblest sort of character, with the noblest sort of ancestry. His own bond, his ancient friendship with my daughters is one I have long treasured,” Here he lied with some seeing through it, and sniggering, “and long encouraged. I have long held him in the highest esteem, and hoped that he might flourish as a man, as surely as his ancestors have, and he has not disappointed.” Here there were a few polite coughs and snort heard this latter one from the lad’s own mother, with a few looking doubtful. Still Conn went on, “He has long upheld that most sacred of virtues passed down by the Temple; piety, and it is for this reason I hold him up as worthy to stand by my daughter Helga, who has never disappointed, never failed and could never fail me, so long as she draws breath.” Here there were some who had tears speckle their gaze, and others who clapped politely, moved by the bond not of man and woman, but of father and daughter. The lass herself gripped her mother’s hand, a mother who beamed at her husband, pleased by his words. “I pray she finds the same joy that my Ainsley, has brought me every day since I have known her.” Here Ainsley and him embraced, and thus ended his long speech to the immense relief of all his listeners.

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